NORTH EAST MEP ASKS FOR EU ACTION ON HORMONE-DISRUPTING CHEMICALS

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 6th Jul 2010

Liberal Democrat MEP for the North East, Fiona Hall, has urged the EU Commission to speed up its action on hormone-disrupting chemicals widely found in pesticides but also in ordinary plastic products, including baby bottles and toys.

More than 10 years ago, the EU adopted a strategy for action on endocrine hormone-disrupting chemicals (EDCs). Since then, scientific evidence has linked EDCs to cancer, lower fertility and possible impacts on behaviour and development. Yet, no practical action has yet been taken at EU level to remove hormone-disrupting chemicals from the environment.

Arguing for immediate measures to tackle the issue, Fiona said:

"It is very frustrating that after 84 studies in 13 years since the EU action plan on EDCs was put in place, the Commission wants to wait for yet another report due in 2012 before putting in place concrete measures. Certain people, particularly unborn children, are extremely vulnerable to these chemicals, and the changes have been shown to be irreversible, so people's lives have been blighted from before birth as a result of this.

"The recent scientific findings indicate that the current EU legislation on chemicals, REACH, is flawed because it only looks at one chemical at a time and doesn't take into account the cumulative health risks to people exposed to a combination of chemicals. This is particularly worrying as studies from Denmark and Germany have shown that especially children are frequently exposed to a whole cocktail of different chemicals.

"This is why I urge the Commission to act immediately on the basis of the precautionary principle. As a first step, the Commission needs to ensure that chemicals with a high risk to human health can be dealt with as a priority under REACH, and if necessary banned.